Chapter 60: A Man’s Dream, so I think

I am currently doing nothing but casting recovery magic while running nonstop.
As for why I am doing such a thing, it’s because I received a party invitation from the king.
I hear that it’s a thank you for before and that all the necessities, such as clothing, have already been arranged for over there.
However, I was requested to keep the fact that Aura and Tré are slaves confidential.
As far as it goes, Lily wasn’t my slave so it was irrelevant for her, but I’m sure that a party with royalty attending isn’t something that a commoner can enter.
Much less so for slaves.

……You might think that it would have been fine for me to rent some sort of wagon because I’m heading to the capital but, as a matter of fact, I have rented a wagon.
It was just that Aura, mad about the previous incident with Lily, didn’t let me ride it.
It was as though she absolutely would not let a pervert get close to her little sister.

“……Heal………….Heal.”

Thus, I am now casting recovery magic while continuing to chase after the wagon that was steadily advancing in front――

“Haah, I’m exhausted……”

I had my recovery magic so I wasn’t fatigued physically, but I was mentally worn out.

By the way, we’re taking a break right now to let the horses rest.

“You’re rather undisciplined despite being a pervert, to be admitting defeat here.”

An extremely unreasonable thing was said by Aura.
Nevertheless, I won’t reply here.
Because it’s obvious that I’ll receive further negative treatment if I do so.

“You’ve worked hard~”

Lily gave me, who was feeling a little relieved when Aura had left, a few words of encouragement.

“Lily’s so kind……”

I mutter as I pat Lily, who had come up beside me, on the head.
Since Aura wasn’t here, I continued patting her earnestly.

“Then I’m going to go back now~!”

Lily returns inside the wagon as though she was satisfied.

With some feeling of reluctance, I decided to take a stroll alone to kill some time.

“Heal……Heal!!”

I was currently being chased by a dragon.
That dragon was, of course, the crimson dragon I had an encounter with before.

“………..H-heal!!”

I was fleeing while curing my fatigue with recovery magic, but I probably won’t be able to return to where Aura and the others are at this rate.
I need to throw off this dragon somehow.
But with no idea how to do that, I could only run away.

“……!?”

When I look in front, somehow, standing there was a man roughly the same age as the king.

“Mister! A dragon is coming chasing so run away!!”

However, the man showed no signs of fleeing at all, and he came walking this way of all things.

“……!?”

I hurriedly change directions, trying to keep the dragon away from the man, but it was already too late.
The dragon noticed the man and opened its large jaw as it charged at the man, as though it thought that he would be easier to catch than me.

“……u……i.”

The man stands there and mutters something.

“GUGYAAAAAAaaaAa…Aaa…..a”

The next moment, I heard the dragon’s roar and then the dragon collapsed in front of the man just like that.

“……”

Um… I wonder what just happened.
Perhaps it collapsed and died of hunger or something, maybe……?
The most likely thing is that the man did something.

“……You.”“!?”

By the time I realised, the man had moved before me, so I panickedly stood on guard.

“You, what do you think about girls?”“……Huh?”

I look closely at the man before me and saw that he was clad in black and his face was full of dignity.
Such a man suddenly questioned me about girls.
Nevertheless, I’m afraid that I can’t really disregard someone who saved my life, so I think desperately.

“……Th-they’re a man’s dream, I think…”

I feel like I said something bad, but that was all that I could think of so I couldn’t do anything about it.

“Oh, a ‘dream’, huh. That is quite the answer.”

The man strokes his chin, and looked to be in a reverie.

“……In that case,”

He stayed like that for a while, but finally moves his hand and speaks, addressing me.

“What do you think of little girls?”“……L-little girls, you say”“Yeah, those commonly referred to as loli’s.”

I-inquiring about loli’s……?
I suppose I had just been imagining that the many incidents I experienced seemed to be related to those in some way.
……Well, rather than that, I must be thinking about loli’s right now.

“……”

The loli’s that come to mind are ‘Tré’ and ‘Lily’, these two.
‘Tré’ is rather reliable for her age and is also smart. However, she is poor at cooking.
‘Lily’ acts in accordance to her age, but her cooking is delicious. Also, she has great physical strength.
Hence, to me, ‘Loli’s’ are――

“‘My own daughters’, I guess……”

――Probably this.

“Saying ‘my own daughters’ is, er, how should I say it…… Ah, to put it simply, I have to take care because I don’t know what might happen, but I will be looking over them until they can be sufficiently independent, is what I mean.”

The man has a look of curiosity on his face when he hears my reply.
I didn’t know what to say either, but that was what popped into my head.
Even I know that Tré and Lily aren’t my real daughters.
Even if it wasn’t so, I still believe that I have such feelings.

“Your ‘own daughters’, huh……”“Was that no good……?”

The man muttered quietly at my reply.
I had just spoken the words that I thought of on the spur of the moment, so I don’t know if it was good or bad.

“……No, your answer was good. I’m glad to hear such a good answer.”“I-is that so.”

It seems the man was pleased so I’m relieved.

“Nest!!”

I heard Aura calling my name from far away.

“Ah, crap!!”

Quite a lot of time has passed. She’s probably angry……

“Umm… Thank you for taking down the dragon. You saved me.”

In the end, I thank the man.
I can’t tell for sure, but I dare say that this man should have been the one to fell the dragon.

“No, it was no problem at all. Ah, I’m grateful for this encounter so I’ll give you something good before you leave.”

Saying that, the man gave me some kid of black, spherical object.

“Um, this is……?”

Not knowing what it was, I ask the man.

“It can only be used once. You should use it in a when you’ve been driven into a corner. Just swallow the black ball only when you are in a situation where you must use it. Remember, consider whether you really ought to be using it when you are using it……”“Y-yes…….”

From what I heard, it seems like he gave me a really incredible object.
……Be as it may, just what situation should I be using this in?

“Nest――?”

Aura’s voice draws nearer, little by little.

“Ah, sorry. Please excuse me here. Um, thank you very much for everything.”

I say that as a farewell, and start running in the direction of Aura’s voice.

――――――[Man’s POV]―――――――――――――――――――――――――――――

“Fufufu……”

While on my search, I met an interesting person for the first time in a while.
Saying that girls are ‘a man’s dream’ and loli’s are ‘one’s own daughters’, he returned to where his own companions were.
I had a lot more that I wanted to ask, so it’s a pity.
However, I can be relieved if it’s that human.
Well, I don’t know when he might use the ball I gave him, but it’s probably fine.

“Fuwahahaha……!!”

Ah, when was the last time I laughed like this?
Come to think of it, I forgot to ask for his name……

“Oh well, it should be fine.”

Perhaps we can meet again someday.
While looking down at the ground in the distance, I couldn’t help but to relax my face while thinking of that someday.

….Aint liking Aura anymore… It’s like she’s the boss/owner instead of Nest, and makes me wonder if Japanese people likes getting abused as it showed in their stories and tsundere popularities… And if Aura’s personality intended to be a joke for the author. It’s not working cuz I’m no longer laugh at such thing by this point. Anyway thanks for the chapter

An extremely unreasonable thing was said by Aura.
Nevertheless, I won’t reply here.
Because it’s obvious that I’ll receive further negative treatment if I do so.

Yeah… She’s a mere slave, yet he’s taking abuse and violence that you wouldn’t allow even if it was someone of higher social standing than you, even if you were wrong and felt guilty you wouldn’t allow this, but he’s innocent yet he’s taking all this shit, despite being her master.

Should grow a pair, really. Aura should be put in her place, hard. To know what do to or not to do. To know who’s the boss or at least learn not to act like a hardcore tsundere that has no proper dere anymore. She’s just a violent bitch, way too much tsun. It’s the type that you don’t want to get close to you, the obnoxious type that just uses physical violence all the time and bosses the mc around, one of the worst types of girls out there. Tsunderes are really nice if done right, but this is just abuse… If she was the slave of any normal person, she’d be executed for her insolence, or at least severely punished. Even if she wasn’t, abuse like this would be enough to turn someone in to jail.

It’s not funny, it’s supposed to be a joke but you just can’t laugh at this. I think I once a long time ago laughed a bit at something like this when I read the earlier chapters of zero no tsukaima, but at least there he was supposed to be in the role of a pet/slave, so it was more acceptable, it was done way better and the violence wasn’t as bad as this. Though I had to drop that novel after several volumes because the whole story turned to crap.